THE NEAR NORTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1476, 9 June 1905, Page 3

THE NEAR NORTH.

(Contributed.)

The East bowed down before the blast, in silent, deep disdain : She heard the legions thunder then plunged in thought again. But a new order of things has arisen since the English poet, with the glamor of Asia over him, penned those lines. Even at the time he wrote them, the Orient—-the •‘Far East” to Europe, but the “Near North ” to us, if wb could but clear our

minds of European newspaper cant —was waking uneasily from her Blumber, disturbed by an influence whioh would not let her work out her-destiny in her own way. but insisted on forcing upon her its ideals, and trade, and when she protested she would have nous of them, bringing to bear on her all the weight of life-destroy-ing inventions which the genius of the Caucasians had evolved in fratri-

cidal wars. Russia, whom the British people have been taught, from matters of statecraft, to regard as their hereditary foe, is the first, os she has ever boon, to feel the effect of the Asiatic awakening. The question

naturally arises—whose turn next ? A glance at the map of the land mass known as the continents of Europe and Asia, and the position therein occupied by Russia, will help to explain why sho is the first to come into collision with the yellow

man. , . , Possessing an immense and extremely fertile country, Russia has practically no outlet for her surplus produce by way of the sea. In the extreme North her boundary is the frozen Arctic Ocean. The outlet to the Baltic Sea is held by foreign

powers, and commanded by their forts. The mouth of her only warm port, the Black-Sea, is in the hands of the Turk, and by the treaty of Paris she is debarred from passing her warships through the Dardanelles ; she is blocked by Britain from finding an outlet in the Persian Gulf, as Britain considers (probably rightly) that once established there Russia would be a menace to her Indian Empire and Australasian colonies and trade. Thus hemmed in, so that she has nowhere an icefree port of her own for men-of-war —and

without their protection to build up a mercantile marine would be folly, as it would be liable to be swept away by any first-class power with which she happened to become embroiled—she has been driven across the continent of Asia in search of a warm port. With that end in view some yearn back she projected, and has since built, an immensely costly railway. Only to find herself thwarted, when her railway was almost finished, by the seizure by Japan of the port which she coveted, as tbs outcome of wholly unprovoked onslaught by the newly-organised Japan upon China. How she wrested the prize from Japan, wicb truly Oriental jugglery, is very recent history, and does not require tolling. Having done so, aha sot about making it as she, and all the best authorities thought, impregnable. At that time Japan, sore with being jockeyed out of her prize, and flushed with her newly-found strength, was inclined to come to “ holts" with Russia, there and then, but Britain, ! wish whom she had contracted a secret alliance, to be publicly ratified later, and | Germany, who supplied her with army ini structors, advised, “ wait.’’

Slow, stupid John Bull —Who is supposed to ho beaten in every diplomatic tussle in the European Council —saw clearly the strength and danger of the newly arisen power. As well ho realised the danger in Russian dominating the Pacific and hanging like a thunder-cloud over Indiii. Safety for him appeared to lie in helping Japan on to the mainland of Asia, and if in getting a footing she was weakened aad had to nurse her wounds for ten or may bo a score of years, well, so much the better, many things might hap-

pen m that time. But how does the position stand now ? Russia is certainly weakened. As a seapower she may be said to be practically wiped out —her army has been driven back but can in no sense be considered crippled. If peace should be arranged with Japan, inßussia’stroubled internal state ths army would bo a serious monace back at home. What would mend Russia’s fortune, and wbat would unite all classes again, so readily as a descent upon India, if successful ? ‘

And Japan ! If peace should eventuate now, and she gets the moderate 200 millions she asks as indemnity—Flushed wi:h success, and with an uninjured and augmented navy, and a mighty army that has not koown defeat I Will she be content to remain as she is, or, with the lust for conquest hot in her blood, will she, too, look for empire, and, if so, will she follow the line of least, resistance, where the lands aco sparsely populated, and the country practically defenceloss ? In any ease it would bo woll for Australia and New Zcai land to remember the old maxim — 11 In time of peace prepare for war.”